Ratko Mladic taken to hospital, criminal trial adjourned for day

From Laura P. Maestro, CNN

Updated 1250 GMT (1950 HKT) July 12, 2012

Ratko Mladic: Villain to many, hero to others9 photos

Ratko Mladic: Villain to many, hero to others – General Ratko Mladic, center, commander of Serbian forces in Bosnia, arrives at Sarajevo airport on August 10, 1993 to negotiate the withdrawal of his troops from Mount Igman.

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Ratko Mladic: Villain to many, hero to others9 photos

Ratko Mladic: Villain to many, hero to others – Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, right, confers with his military chief during a meeting with the press in Pale on August 5, 1993.

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Ratko Mladic: Villain to many, hero to others9 photos

Ratko Mladic: Villain to many, hero to others – Ratko Mladic talks to a Serbian soldier on February 15, 1994 at Lukavica barracks near Sarajevo six days before the NATO ultimatum.

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Ratko Mladic: Villain to many, hero to others9 photos

Ratko Mladic: Villain to many, hero to others – David Scheffer, U.S. Ambassador at large for war crimes points to a wanted poster showing Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Karadzic and Mladic in March 2000.

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Ratko Mladic: Villain to many, hero to others9 photos

Ratko Mladic: Villain to many, hero to others – A Muslim woman and her husband are treated in July 1995 for injuries inflicted on them by Serb forces as they fled Srebrenica. The man died shortly after the picture was taken.

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Ratko Mladic: Villain to many, hero to others9 photos

Ratko Mladic: Villain to many, hero to others – Serb nationalists protest against the U.S. and the U.N. war crimes court in Belgrade in December 2006. Their posters show pictures of Karadzic, Mladic and Vojislav Seselj with the Cyrillic writing meaning: "God saves the Serbs" and "Great Serbia."

Ratko Mladic: Villain to many, hero to others – Mladic supporters protest at a rally organized by the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party near parliament in Belgrade in May 2011.

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Ratko Mladic: Villain to many, hero to others9 photos

Ratko Mladic: Villain to many, hero to others – Mladic appears at his war crimes trial on May 16, 2012. He eluded authorities for nearly 16 years until his capture in May 2011.

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Story highlights

Ratko Mladic is taken to the hospital, a court spokeswoman says

"Proceedings were adjourned because he wasn't feeling well," the spokeswoman says

Mladic is accused of orchestrating a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia

He has been indicted on 11 counts of genocide and war crimes

Ratko Mladic, who is on trial on charges he masterminded an army campaign to cleanse Bosnia of Croats and Muslims, was taken to the hospital Thursday as a precautionary measure, a court spokeswoman said.

"Proceedings were adjourned because he wasn't feeling well," said Nerma Jelacic, a spokeswoman for International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. She did not release any details about his condition.

Mladic, whose trial began at the Hague in May, is accused of orchestrating a campaign of ethnic cleansing during the bloody civil war that ripped apart Yugoslavia. He has been indicted on 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in the 1992-95 war.

Though he was carrying two handguns, he surrendered without a fight and was extradited to the Netherlands.

In the three decades leading up to the violent splintering of Yugoslavia, Mladic rose rapidly through the ranks of the Yugoslav army. In 1991, he served as a front-line commander spearheading Serb forces in a yearlong war with Croatia.

By the time he took to Bosnia's battlefields, he had become a hero to many Serbs, seen as a defender of their dwindling fortunes.

In May 1992, Bosnia's Serbian political leaders picked him to lead the assault on their Muslim enemies who clamored for independence.

Mladic wasted no time galvanizing his heavily armed forces in a siege of Sarajevo, cutting the city off from the outside world. Serb forces pounded the city every day from higher ground positions, trapping Sarajevo's ill-prepared residents in the valley below.

As the war ended in the fall of 1995, Mladic went on the run.

Shortly after Mladic was sent to The Hague last year, authorities nabbed former Croatian Serb rebel leader Goran Hadzic. He was the last Yugoslav war crimes suspect at large.